Paw Paw's New Restaurants Landed at the Highway Exit. Downtown's Next Move Is Inside the Strand.

On the morning of Monday, Oct. 5, Kelsey Schultz unlocked the door of Paw Paw's new Culver's for the first time and found people already lined up outside, MLive reported. She told the outlet it was her 11th Culver's opening since joining the company and her first as owner-operator.

The restaurant at 277 County Road 665 sits just south of the I-94/M-40 interchange. It was the third new place to eat at that exit this year. The other two, The Foundation and Jersey Giant SUBS!, are in a new plaza a few hundred yards north. In 2026, every one of Paw Paw's new restaurants opened at the highway exit. Downtown has been working on a different kind of change, and it sits inside a 1927 movie theater on East Michigan Avenue.

The plaza on the old Copper Grill corner

The building at 854 S. Kalamazoo St. is called the Paw Paw Retail Center. The Courier-Leader photographed it under construction on the former Copper Grill site and reported then that a new restaurant, The Foundation, would move in. The Foundation is now the plaza's anchor. Jersey Giant SUBS! has the south-facing end, at Kalamazoo Street and Ampey Road just north of the I-94 interchange.

The two restaurants serve different purposes.

The Foundation is the sit-down option. According to its own About page, it was founded by former firefighters and emergency medical personnel. Each month it picks a cause or charity to support, through direct contributions and a "round up" program that lets guests add to their bill. The menu runs from omelets and pancakes to salads, sandwiches and dinner entrées. There's also a private banquet room for small events. Destination Paw Paw lists a bar among its amenities. The hours matter more than anything else here. The Paw Paw Chamber listing shows it open at 7 a.m. every day and until 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

Jersey Giant SUBS! is the quick stop. SW Michigan Dining visited in July and found it smaller than the Kalamazoo-area locations, with three or four tables beside the counter. It's built for grabbing lunch to go, not for lingering.

Culver's adds a drive-thru to the cluster. It has two lanes, a covered patio, and a lobby open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. Drive-thru and third-party delivery run until 11 p.m. nightly, per MLive. It is only the second Culver's in Van Buren County. The other one is in South Haven. Co-owner Drew Langstraat also owns the Culver's in Allendale, Caledonia and Wayland.

Downtown's answer is one block and one family

Downtown didn't add a new storefront this year. It already had a cluster under one ownership. Eric and Jessica Cook bought the Strand Theater at 115 E. Michigan Ave. in August 2023. They also own and run Ruby's Sandwich & Ice Cream Shoppe and 120 Taphouse & Bistro across the street, according to the Strand's About page. Eric's uncle, Mike Cook, is a co-owner and handles special events, birthday parties and theater rentals. General manager Erica Haselberger has been with the theater since 2010.

The building is older than most of what surrounds it. The Strand went up in 1927 on the site of the fire department's old horse corral. It started out hosting traveling live acts and switched to motion pictures in 1930. Tickets are still cheap. The theater's homepage lists $5 for every 7 p.m. show and $4 for matinees.

The other two businesses fill out an evening. 120 Taphouse & Bistro at 120 E. Michigan Ave. calls itself upscale-casual, with craft beer, cocktails, shareables, tacos, burgers and its egg-roll-style "Doobies." Ruby's at 110 E. Michigan Ave. makes deli-style sandwiches with meat and cheese sliced in-house, local bread and house-pickled vegetables.

Where the two clusters overlap, and where they don't

Each cluster covers hours the other one misses. Here are the posted hours as of late October 2026:

Monday is the clearest split. The Strand and 120 Taphouse are both closed, so a Monday dinner-and-a-movie downtown isn't possible. The highway exit is open. Breakfast splits the same way. Of these five places, only The Foundation opens before 10 a.m. Sunday tilts toward the exit too, since Ruby's is closed and 120 Taphouse doesn't open until noon.

Downtown has the advantage on Tuesday through Saturday evenings. You can eat at 120 Taphouse before a 7 p.m. show and walk across the street. Sundays offer a 3 p.m. matinee as well. Restaurant hours change, especially as winter comes on, so call ahead before planning around any of these.

The license that ties the two clusters together

The two clusters share more paperwork than you'd expect. In November 2025, Eric Cook brought up applying for a redevelopment liquor license for the Strand at a Paw Paw Village Council meeting. The Downtown Development Authority board later recorded its support, according to a Citizen Portal summary of the meeting.

The council adopted its local approval resolution on Jan. 12, 2026. The Courier-Leader reported the reason for the one-month wait. Village Manager Bryan Myrkle had asked to hold the vote so he could assemble the same documentation the council used when it approved "The Foundation restaurant's similar request." Myrkle told the paper the village has no specific policy for these requests, but "I do believe there is value in treating each applicant the same."

So the new bar at the highway exit and a possible bar in the 1927 theater went through the same local process, a few months apart. Final approval rested with the state. At its Aug. 20, 2026 administrative meeting, the Michigan Liquor Control Commission approved the on-premise request from Strand Theatre, LLC by a unanimous vote, according to the commission's published minutes.

The theater hasn't announced anything since. The Strand's concessions page still lists water, Crystal Lite and soda combos, with no beer or wine. The latest post in its news section, from November 2025, invites people to call or email about booking private parties. Two months after the state vote, the license is approved and the drinks menu hasn't appeared.

What to keep an eye on this season

If you live near downtown, these are the specific things that could change in the next few weeks:

• The Strand's concessions and news pages. Any change in alcohol service is likely to show up there or on the theater's Facebook page first. Private events go through Mike Cook at the email address on the About page.
• The film lineup. The current schedule runs Other Mommy through Oct. 29. Whalefall, Street Fighter and Clayface are listed next, with start dates still to be announced.
• The Foundation's monthly cause. The restaurant changes its charity every month, so the November pick will be a new one.
• December on the calendar. The Village Council approved the Rotary Club's Santa Run for Saturday, Dec. 12, 2026, from 8 to 11 a.m., according to June council minutes. Dates for this year's Christmas in the Village haven't been posted yet.

All the new tables, drive-thru lanes and breakfast hours this year went to the exit. Downtown's next change depends on a license that's already in hand, a theater that's sold $5 tickets on the same block for years, and owners who run the sandwich shop and taphouse across the street.

If you're wondering how a new restaurant cluster at the exit or a busier downtown block could affect what your Paw Paw home is worth, we track those changes as closely as we track sales. Ask Atwood Properties Group for your instant home valuation and we'll walk you through what's moving near you.